Out there

Share via

In 1955 ospreys recolonised Scotland decades after the last native birds had been shot out by over-zealous Victorian gamekeepers. Two Scandinavians dropped in, perhaps blown off course on their northerly migration. They stayed. Now we have 182 pairs, spreading in an arc from that first site. Their arrival has been an annual climacteric for all my time here, a consciousness ever- brightening our spring days. “It’s nearly April — oh, good! The ospreys will soon be here.”

So here I am alone at the loch at ten to six, first light. I haven’t seen this bird since September. I stand